Happy holidays!

Happy Chanukah, everyone! And Merry Christmas!

It's the holidays, but things are very different here from in the states. Most people in Jerusalem are Orthodox Jews. So, no Christmas lights! All the restaurants are kosher - you have to send out a search party if you want to order meat and cheese at the same meal. Even the McDonalds here is kosher! And everything is closed on the Sabbath. Except the Christian, Armenian and Muslim quarters of downtown. But we were warned against going into the Muslim quarter. We looked at a few restaurants yesterday for lunch - no hot food on the Sabbath either. Such a different world. It's cool, though. It's comforting almost to be in a place where Jews are the majority.

Next stop: Tel Aviv.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.